International Journal of Advanced Science and Research

International Journal of Advanced Science and Research

ISSN: 2455-4227
Impact Factor: RJIF 5.12
www.allsciencejournal.com
Volume 3; Issue 3; May 2018; Page No. 56-58

Seismic design of cold formed steel structures in residential applications

Sandeep1, Sandeep Singh2
1
M.Tech., Civil Engineering Student, MRIEM, Rohtak, Haryana, India
2
Assistant Professor, Civil Engineering Department, MRIEM, Rohtak, Haryana, India

Abstract
In this study, lateral load bearing capacities of cold formed steel framed wall panels are investigated. For this purpose lateral load
bearing alternatives are analyzed numerically by computer models and results are compared with already done experimental
studies and approved codes. The Overall seismic behaviour of cold formed structure depend on wall panels which are governed
essentially by the performance of the structure connectors e.g. sheeting-to-sheeting connectors, and sheeting-to-framing
connectors. In residential cold formed steel construction, walls are generally covered with cladding material like oriented strand
board (OSB) or plywood on the exterior wall surface and these sheathed light gauge steel walls behave as shear walls with
significant capacity. Oriented strand board is used in analytical models since OSB claddings are most commonly used in
residential applications. The strength of shear walls depends on different parameters like screw spacing, strength of sheathing, size
of fasteners used and aspect ratio. The yield strength of shear walls at which first screw connection reaches its shear capacity is
calculated and load carrying capacity per meter length is found. The nonlinear analysis is also done by modeling the screw
connections between OSB and frame as non-linear link and the nominal shear capacities of walls are calculated for different screw
spacing combinations. The results are consistent with the values in shear wall design Guide and International Building Code 2003.
In the few last decades, technical advance have been made seismic resisting cold frame steel building, the development of design
procedure to allow for the design of wall carrying horizontal and vertical loads.

Keywords: cold formed steel shear walls, OSB sheathing, flat strap bracing, lateral stiffness

Introduction
The objective of this study is to investigate analytically the
lateral load capacities of shear walls used in cold formed steel
framed residential buildings. The capacity of the shear walls
depend on the interaction of several parameters like screw
spacing on perimeter and field, screw type and size, plate type
and thickness, plate strength and aspect ratio. The main
parameters are studied and some of them are assumed
constant. In experimental studies, it was observed that the
failure mechanism of shear walls is OSB sheathing and steel
frame connection and the connection shear forces are
calculated in all the computer models and shear wall
capacities are calculated according to this parameter.
Shear walls with X-type flat strap diagonal bracing are also
Fig 1
analyzed and Parameters for design are investigated. Since the
X-bracing shear wall members are designed against imposed
The cold formed steel sections are produced from steel coils
design loads, in this study it is focused on the design
by roll-formers or hydraulic press machine. Production with
parameter than lateral load capacity. Also combination of X-
roll-formers is faster and more accurate because in roll-
bracing and OSB sheathing together are analyzed and
formers the whole production process is controlled by a
contributions are determined. Cold formed steel sections are
computer. Today it is possible by the developments in roll-
being increasingly used in residential construction
former technology to produce the frames of several houses in
All over the world and light gauge steel houses are becoming
a day and finish hundreds of houses in a few months.
preferable in Turkey since last severe earthquakes. Its
Especially the wall frames are assembled in factory and
advantages like high strength vs. weight ratio, very short
transported to the site as frames and at site these frames are
construction time, great resistance to earthquake because of its
assembled to each other. According to scale of project, the
low weight, environmentally friendly, high sound and heat
roll-formers can be moved to site and the production can be
isolation are the main advantageous of this construction
done in a workshop at site, which results in great savings in
technique (Fig 1 and Fig 2).

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International Journal of Advanced Science and Research
transportation costs.
Components of a cold formed steel structure
A cold formed steel panel normally consists of top and bottom
track, studs, nogs(blockings), bracing and sheathing. The
thicknesses of sections used in cold formed steel construction
mainly vary between 0.70 mm to 2.0 mm. C-section with lips
are used as studs and C-section without lips are used as tracks.
Self-drilling screws or pneumatically driven steel rivets are
used in frame member connections. Usage of self-drilling
screws saves the assembly time in factory and at site. Cold
formed steel houses are composed of wall, ceiling and roof
panels, floor joists and roof trusses. Generally most of the
walls are load bearing and the lateral loads are transferred to
shear walls via roof and floor diaphragms. All the walls are
covered by wooden based cladding material on the exterior.
The most common materials are Oriented Strand Board (OSB)
and plywood. In this research OSB cladding (Fig 2) is
investigated as the structural member since it is the most
common material and the shear wall capacity of OSB sheathed
walls are conservative as compared to plywood. The most
common thickness of OSB for external cladding is 11 mm
(7/16 in) for residential applications. The sheathed light gauge
steel wall panels provide significant shear values against
lateral forces caused by earthquake and wind loads. The shear
walls are anchored to foundation by hold-down anchors and
the shear couple is transferred to ground.
Fig 2
Objectives
 To become familiar with the prestressed concrete
fabrication and construction process.
 To become familiar with professional and ethical issues
and the importance of lifelong learning in structural
engineering.
Literature Review
Previous studies on cold formed steel framed shear walls
Experiments and analysis on cold formed steel framed shear
walls is a subject that
Has been studied for a long time but the researches have been
done mostly since 1990's.
The following results were achieved by Klippstein and Tarpy
(1992) [13] after a series of experiments.
 The results obtained from the investigation indicate that
tested wall panels
 Framed with cold-formed steel studs can substantially
resist later in-plane shear loads when used as vertical
shear wall diaphragms in buildings. However, certain
design and construction precautions must be followed in
order to take advantage of the resistance to in-plane wind
and earthquake forces.
 A cold formed steel wall system with gypsum board,
stucco or plywood
 Cladding may be used with rigid or semi-rigid wall to
floor attachments at both ends and/or at or between
intermittent studs to act as a wind or earthquake resistant
shear wall.
 A proper transfer of gravity, uplift and transverse or in-
plane forces must
 Be provided to transmit these loads to lower floor levels
through floor joist as necessary to prevent local joist
failure. This could be accomplished with transverse
spacers between joist and other equivalent means.
 Additional or heavier end studs may be required to
transmit vertical
 Components of shear walls.
 Welding to connect the studs to the track or using self-
drilling screws to
 Connect the stud to the track are acceptable provided that
welds or fasteners are designed in accordance with the
current specification.
 The use of plywood sheathing, stucco or plaster increases
the shear
 Resistance of the wall panel over that with gypsum
wallboard.
 Decreasing the stud spacing alone slightly increases the
shear strength.
 For design purposes, a factor of safety in compliance with
design
Philosophy of the current AISI specification is recommended.
After Klippstein and Tarpy, (1992) [13] the failure mechanism
of cold formed steel
Shear wall panels are described by Serrette (1997) with the
results of the full scale and small scale tests. The mode of
failure of OSB sheathed panels is bend- breaking of material
around screw followed by screws pulling out at the end of
material.
Serrette (1997) also describes the effect of fastener spacing
according to test done.
In one series of tests, the screw spacing was held at 12 in.
along intermediate members and decreased from 6 in. to 2 in.
along the panel edges. The results showed that the wall shear
strength can be significantly increased by decreasing the edge
fastener spacing as shown by the comparison below. Even
though double studs were used at the ends of the wall (back-
to-back with the sheathing attached only to the outer studs),
for the 2 in. and 3 in. spacing Nominal Shear failure was
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International Journal of Advanced Science and Research
triggered by crippling of the end studs.
Zhao and Rogers (2002) also explain the failure mechanism of
the shear walls recorded during testing, the steel stud shear
walls failed when one of the following took place: screws
pulled through the wood sheathing, studs buckled, screws
pulled out of the studs and/or tracks, screws sheared, tracks
pulled out of the plane, etc (Serrette et al., 1996b, 1997b).
Fülop and Dubina (2004) [6] suggested the drift angle for wall
displacement as a maximum 1/50 rad storey drift angle limit is
also suggested as acceptable during severe earthquakes.
Authors also describe the failure mechanism of OSB sheathed
walls observed from the experiments they did. Due to
increased load bearing capacity uplift effect induced in the
corner was more important. The three OSB panels placed
vertically produced rigid body rotations during deformation
and difference of deformation between panel and skeleton had
to be accommodated by the screws. This led to important
deformation of the fixing screws and relative vertical slip of
one OSB panel to the other. Failure of the specimen was
sudden when one vertical row of screws unzipped from the
stud and both pull over the screw head, and failure of OSB
margins was observed.
Fülop and Dubina (2004) [6] also stated the differences
between cyclic and monotonic Performance of shear walls.
Qualitatively observing comparative monotonic to cyclic
curves, a reduction of strength of about 10% can be identified
in case of cyclic loading. Hence, if only monotonic response is
considered for an analysis (e.g. push-over analysis), the
performance of the panel will be overestimated. The allowable
strength is referred as the minimum of the force at storey drift
angle 1/300. Differences between monotonic and cyclic values
can be observed as follows. Initial rigidity is not affected,
values of cyclic and monotonic tests range within a difference
of less than 20%. The same can be noted for ductility,
exception being in case of OSB specimens where ductility is
reduced by 10-25% for cyclic results. One important
observation concerns Nominal Shear load (Fu), where cyclic
results are lower than monotonic ones by 5-10 % even if we
consider unsterilized envelope curve.
Conclusion
Following conclusions were drawn from the study
 Oriented Strand boards sheathed shear walls have
significant shear capacity to resist against lateral forces
caused by earthquake and wind.
 The shear wall capacity can be increased by increasing
the screw spacing on perimeter. The shear capacity
increases 2.28 times if the perimeter screw spacing
decreases from 15 cm to 5 cm, assuming that all the other
parameters are constant.
 A consistency has been achieved with the analytical
model results and International Building Code (IBC
2003) [9] table values for nominal shear values for shear
walls framed with cold-formed steel studs.
 While performing nonlinear analyses it is observed that
first perimeter screws yield and then the joints on the field
yield that is the case observed in the experiments done by
researchers.
 Stiffness of X-braced wall frames increase if the flat strap
bracing with Larger area is used but it does not make
significant change in the lateral load capacity of the frame
because the axial compression capacities of the end studs
govern the capacity.
References
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2001, 48-49.
2. (Construction industry news -in Turkish). AISI American
Iron and Steel Institute, "Fasteners for Residential Steel
Framing Washington DC, 1993.
3. AISI American Iron and Steel Institute, "Specification for
the Design of Cold Formed Steel Structural members",
2001, Washington DC
4. Akbas B, Shen J, Dincer T. Effect of Oriented Strand
Board Panels on the Lateral Stiffness of Lightweight
Frames", International IASS Symposium on Lightweight
Structures in Civil Engineering, Warsaw, Poland, 2002,
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5. Anonymous. Celik yapilar atalepartiyor, Dünyainsaat
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